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Toshiba NB305 review

in Laptops

Verdict

A little more expensive than the average netbook, but then the NB305 is also a little superior

Review Date: 19 Feb 2010

Reviewed By: Sasha Muller

Price when reviewed: £268 (£315 inc VAT)

Overall Rating
5 stars out of 6

Features & Design
6 stars out of 6

Value for Money
5 stars out of 6

Performance
2 stars out of 6

PCPRO Recommended

Details
Part Code PLL3AE-00F00NEN
Review Date 19 Feb 2010
Price ex VAT £268
Price inc VAT £315
Overall rating 5 stars out of 6
Features & Design 6 stars out of 6
Value for Money 5 stars out of 6
Performance 2 stars out of 6
Warranty
Warranty 1 yr return to base
Physical specifications
Dimensions 266 x 193 x 36mm (WDH)
Weight 1.360kg
Travelling weight 1.8kg
Processor and memory
Processor Intel Atom N450
Motherboard chipset Intel NM10
RAM capacity 1.00GB
Memory type DDR2
SODIMM sockets free 0
SODIMM sockets total 1
Screen and video
Screen size 10.1in
Resolution screen horizontal 1,024
Resolution screen vertical 600
Resolution 1024 x 600
Graphics chipset Intel GMA 3150
Graphics card RAM 0MB
VGA (D-SUB) outputs 1
HDMI outputs 0
S-Video outputs 0
DVI-I outputs 0
DVI-D outputs 0
DisplayPort outputs 0
Drives
Capacity 250GB
Hard disk usable capacity 233GB
Spindle speed 5,400RPM
Internal disk interface SATA/300
Hard disk Fujitsu MJA2250BH G2
Optical disc technology N/A
Optical drive N/A
Battery capacity 5,600mAh
Replacement battery price inc VAT £0
Networking
Wired adapter speed 100Mbits/sec
802.11a support yes
802.11b support yes
802.11g support yes
802.11 draft-n support yes
Integrated 3G adapter no
Bluetooth support yes
Other Features
Wireless hardware on/off switch no
Wireless key-combination switch yes
Modem no
ExpressCard34 slots 0
ExpressCard54 slots 0
PC Card slots 0
USB ports (downstream) 3
PS/2 mouse port no
9-pin serial ports 0
Parallel ports 0
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports 0
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports 0
3.5mm audio jacks 2
SD card reader yes
Memory Stick reader no
MMC (multimedia card) reader yes
Smart Media reader no
Compact Flash reader no
xD-card reader no
Pointing device type Touchpad
Audio chipset Realtek HD Audio
Speaker location Front edge
Hardware volume control? no
Integrated microphone? yes
Integrated webcam? yes
Camera megapixel rating 0.3mp
TPM no
Fingerprint reader no
Smartcard reader no
Carry case no
Operating system and software
Operating system Windows 7 Starter
OS family Windows 7
Recovery method Recovery partition
Battery and performance tests
Battery life, light use 8hr 41min
Battery life, heavy use 4hr 44min
Overall application benchmark score 0.31
Office application benchmark score 0.31
2D graphics application benchmark score 0.34
Encoding application benchmark score 0.30
Multitasking application benchmark score 0.28
3D performance (crysis) low settings N/A
3D performance setting N/A
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User comments

But what sets it apart?

Sounds good, but is this really any better than the other Pine Trail netbooks, for example the Samsung N210 or the Samsung N220?

By jezza101 on 25 Feb 2010

Comparison requested

Yes I'd like to see this go head to head with the new Samsung range (the NB30 in particular) too.

By moocifer on 4 Mar 2010

Comparison please!

I agree, I would like to see the Samsung n210 and the Toshiba nb305 compared.
I am currently deciding between these two.
I am leaning towards the Samsung. They are v similar spec-wise. The Samsung's matt screen is swaying me.

By Raypa on 1 Apr 2010

Problems in Linux

Warning: Toshiba do not support Linux, and the NB305 currently has problems with the display. The brightness cannot be changed, and if the screen is turned off while suspended, it will not switch back on.

By spaceLem on 16 Apr 2010

Win7 Starter - Don't do it!

I've got the Samsung N210 - its a nice machine with hyperspace allowing me to load up Linux at boot, when I want to, which by the way loads in a flash, compared to waiting almost a minute and a half, to get to the log on screen and then a further minute before you can actually start a browser, and the problems are not just at startup, running media player takes forever at times, the explorer crashes or freezes - very often, tbh - you're better off with either Linux or XP on these machines. - The Atom is too lightweight - or maybe you need 2gb instead of 1gb. Just give it a test in the shops and see for yourself - boot it up there and then and run a few apps.

By nicomo on 17 May 2010

Win7 Starter - Do do it!

Ok, we all know that most machines arrive with rubbish installed, startup options etc that are not reuqired and things that should be turned off. Windows search/indexing for instance.

'nicomo' above is the 'I have linux so I'm superior' type of person while not realising that most people don't actually care and simply want to use Windows and again, get used to the start speed.

Standard people could also replace the slow hard drive with an SSD if they wanted faster start times.

2Gb would also be a VERY good idea on any machine. (As readyboost will try to cache your favourite apps at startup. (I wonder if nicomo knows this)

P.s. There's nothing wrong with Linux (Especially Ubuntu)

By rhythm on 2 Jul 2010

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